


Bounties and Beskar

by waywardblonde18



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Action & Romance, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28376142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waywardblonde18/pseuds/waywardblonde18
Summary: A bounty hunter meets Mando back in Nevarro and asks him to help her learn how to be a better bounty hunter.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Reader, Original Mandalorian Characters (Star Wars) & Original Character(s)
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just beginning writing this work now. These events all take place about a month after the end of season 2. Send me any questions you have in the meantime!

Chapter 1

A whoosh of air fills the bar as the door slides open, admitting a tall, backlit figure. The figure steps in. As my eyes adjust and the door slides back shut, the figure of that Mandalorian comes into focus. He seemed like an honorable enough guy last time he was here. Though I hadn’t seen him in a while, his reputation preceded him. From everything the bounty hunter gossip-mill reported, it sounded like he ended up getting attached to a target who was a child and blew up a good bit of Nevarro in an effort to keep the child safe. It was surprising to hear at first, but after all, I suppose I wouldn’t be interested in trafficking a child regardless of the bounty either.

The Mandalorian walked further into the bar, ordered a drink and then sat down at one of the tables, far away from everyone. I chuckle to myself a bit as he sips his drink through a straw into his helmet. Though I’m familiar with the general idea of the old Mandalorian code, it still tickles me that such an impressive warrior has to sip through a straw so as to not expose his face. 

As if he can feel my stare, the Mandalorian turns his helmet in my direction. My cheeks flush, but I wave just the same. He inclines his head in your direction in return. Suddenly caught by impulse, I stand up and walk over towards his table. 

“Hey Mando, blow anything up lately?” I ask, jauntily leaning my weight against the chair opposite.

“Nothing important,” he replies in a flat, gravely tone through his mask. 

“Well, glad to hear it. Do you mind if I sit?” 

The Mandalorian simply nodded and gestured towards the open seat. I’m not really sure why, but my heart nearly skipped a beat as I looked back up at the helmeted figure across from me. 

“So, I heard you took out half of Nevarro to take care of a kid. Is that true?” I ask.

The Mandalorian paused for a moment, and the air between you seemed to stiffen a bit. After another moment, he nodded again.

“Well, I certainly can’t speak for everyone here, but to me, it sounds like you did the right thing in taking care of that kid. Is he around?” I ask, glancing around the booth to see if I missed seeing the child. 

“No. He was taken back to his people to be trained,” the Mandalorian said, looking down into his drink as he answered. There was a tone of sadness as he said this. My eyes narrow. It seems this child was even more important than I thought. 

“Oh...I’m sorry to hear that. That must be hard,” I say in an attempt to empathize. To my surprise, the Mandalorian looks up and gives a nearly unintelligible nod. You both take another sip of your respective drinks in a slightly awkward silence. 

“Well, if I know one thing, it’s that there’s nothing like a job to take your mind off things,” I say. The Mandalorian looked back up from his drink in what I could only assume was a blank expression. Before I even fully think through what I’m about to do, I say, “Want to come with me on my next bounty? We could split it down the middle.” 

The Mandalorian seemed a bit surprised and tilted his helmet slightly to one side. “Why would you want me to join you?” he asked. That’s a good question, I think to myself. Why _did_ I just ask him to come along?

“Well…” I say, glancing back into my glass as if the answer were at the bottom, “well…I want to be the best bounty hunter there is, don’t I? Don’t they say you should learn from the best?” raising my glass at him as an attempt to regain the air of confidence. 

The Mandalorian didn’t move. He just stared across the table at me. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. I’ll need to get better at reading his body language if we're going to work together, I think to myself. After another moment, he took a sip of his drink, placed it back on the table and looked back up at me. A shiver ran down my spine as he looked back, and I can tell his eyes must be staring right into mine. 

“Ok. I’ll come along. I need the cash since I don't have a ship anymore. I just got dropped here by some...friends, I suppose,” he finished somewhat awkwardly. It seemed like there was some story there, but I wasn’t about to push my luck in asking about it. 

“What’s the job?” he asked.

“Thought you’d never ask,” I say flashing a smile, “Our client wants us to hunt down an Imperial captain and bring him back dead or alive. Apparently, he might have information that would be harmful to our client were it to get out, so our mission is to make sure he either ends up in Republic custody or he doesn’t live to tell the tale. Supposedly, he’s hiding out on Hoth.”

“Hoth? As in that icy wasteland?” the Mandalorian asked. 

“The very same. Hope you have some warmer gear with you,” I say a bit grimly. I’m not personally a huge fan of the cold, having grown up on the mild planet of Chandrila, but the pay was excellent, making it hard to turn down. 

“I don’t, but I know a guy who can get me some,” the Mandalorian responded. 

“Great! I was planning on heading out in about an hour or so. Is that enough time for you?” I ask.

The Mandalorian nods, finishes his drink and stands up. “I’ll find you by your ship once I’ve gotten gear,” he says, turning towards the exit. 

“Wait, do you even know where my ship is?” I call over, bemused. 

The Mandalorian turns back, stares and says, “If you really think I’m the best there is out there, don’t you think I can find your ship?” I laugh and nod as he turns back and walks out of the cantina. 

* * *

A little over an hour later as I finish the pre-flight check on my YT-2400, I sense someone walking up behind me. Looking over my shoulder, I see the Mandalorian walking up with a large bag over one shoulder. “Nice of you to show up, Mando, I was just about to leave your ass behind,” I call jokingly over to him. Mando didn’t reply but surveyed the ship. 

“This isn’t a very powerful ship,” he commented after taking a lap around it. His comment took me by surprise, and I gave him an offended look. 

“Well, it’s a hell of a lot better than no ship,” I say defensively, “I can’t afford a faster one right now, but I assure you, she’s faster than she looks.” Mando gives an unconvinced grunt and walks up the ramp into the ship. 

“It’s ok, Huntress, I still love you,” I mutter under my breath as I pat the ship softly, gather my tools and head up the ramp after Mando.

I drop my tools off in the workshop before heading to the cockpit. To my utter dismay, Mando is sitting right in the pilot’s seat. 

“UMMMM….NO,” I say angrily and shove his shoulder, attempting to unseat him from my spot. Unfortunately, he’s bigger than me and remains in my seat. “This is MY ship, not yours. I’ll fly her, not you.”

Mando looks back up at me. For a moment, I think he’s going to hold his ground. Then, the moment passes, and he moves over to the copilot spot. 

“Thanks,” I say huffily, “Ok, let’s get going. Hypothermia, here we come.”


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

  
  


A few hours later, I’m sitting in the lounge of the Huntress, killing some time by reading a bit. Ever since I was a child on Chandrila, I’ve always enjoyed reading and learning more about the galaxy, which was a good thing considering the amount of school I attended growing up. A wry smile splits across my face as I think about how my parents would feel if they saw me now, reading a book on how to make modifications on my ship as I soar through space on a bounty hunting mission. The thought of their faces makes me laugh at first, and then the pang of loss hits. Nope, nope, nope. We don’t think about that, I think and try to dig back into the book. Moments later, I hear soft footsteps and look up as the Mandalorian walks into the lounge. 

“Oh, hey! How’s it going?” I say quickly, still feeling a bit off kilter with the recent thoughts of my parents. 

“Fine. We should plan how to find this captain,” he says gruffly. 

I snap the book closed and set it aside. “Already figured it out, but yeah, I need to fill you in. His name is Captain Ettuch,” I lean forward and flip on the holographic map of Hoth on the table. Pointing to a spot on the south part of the map, I say “Here’s where the old rebel base was. It’s a few clicks south of where he’s supposedly hiding.” 

I point a bit higher up on the map to a mountainous area and continue, “And here is where our client has intercepted coded transmissions from him. They haven’t worked out the codes, but they’re definitely Imperial.”

“They could be completely unrelated,” Mando says sitting down and looking around the 3D holographic terrain, “It’s possible those transmissions have nothing to do with Captain Ettuch.” I nod. Admittedly, Mando’s point had crossed my mind. 

“I know, but it’s all we have to operate on right now. That said, our client already sent droids out there to see if they can tell if it’s him or not, and the reports back from the droids have been that they don’t see anything, which is good considering I don’t want to accidentally run into an Imperial base thinking it’s just one captain.”

He looks up and says, “Eh, it’s not so bad. I just dropped by one a month or so ago.” My eyes widen at this. Damn, I knew he was good, but running into an Imperial base and living to tell the tale? That was certainly impressive. 

“Oh, well, regardless, I’m glad the droid didn’t find anything,” I respond, eyes still a bit wide. Mando shrugs slightly, and I continue, “Anyways, it seems likely our guy is somewhere in these mountains, so I figure we scout it out and determine the best course of action from there.” I look up, hopeful the idea isn’t frowned upon. 

Mando looks around the hologram again for a minute or so and then nods saying, “Yes, I think that’s as much as we can go on for now.” He moves to stand up and then stops midway. I glance to see what he’s looking at, and see he appears to be staring at the bookshelf. 

“What? Got a problem with my bookshelf?” I ask with a raised eyebrow and a lopsided smile. 

Mando walks over to it. The bookshelf itself is floor to ceiling and built into the side of my ship so as to not fall over at every twist and turn. There are arms on each shelf that push the books up against the back of the shelf to hold them in place. The books themselves range in genre and include everything from spacecrafts to history to planet specific books and many more. Mando looks through them, nearly reverently and then turns. 

“This is an impressive collection. Are they all yours?” he asks.

I slide out from behind the table and walk towards him. “Yup, all mine. Got them back when I was respectable and not some low life bounty hunter,” I say with a wink and a smirk. 

I hear a ghost of a laugh through his voice modulator in his helmet. “So what were you? Back when you were respectable, I mean,” 

I sigh and look down at the bottom corner of the bookcase. I didn’t really want to talk about my life before bounty hunting. It wasn’t bad, it just...hurt. 

“Well...I lived on Chandrila. Thought I was gonna be a senator some day,” I scoff at my own last remark and shake my head. “It seems like a lifetime ago, but I guess it was really only a few years back.”

“Senator, huh?” he asks, in a voice that almost seemed for a moment to border on joking. 

“Yeah, it’s what my fam-,” and I cut off halfway through the word. Mando looked back at me in my momentary pause. “It’s...it was expected, but circumstances made me no longer want to remain in Hanna City,” I say and give a small smile, looking back at the books, willing myself to stay in the moment and not drift away into the past. 

“Well, looks like you probably won’t be a senator, but you might shape up to be an ok bounty hunter,” Mando said. 

I smile a bit deeper and feel myself being pulled back to the moment. “I sure hope so, otherwise, how am I ever gonna afford a more ‘powerful’ ship?” I quip. 

I walk back over to the hologram and shut it off. I pick up the book I’d been reading and place it carefully back on the shelf, where the Mandalorian is still standing. 

“Alright, I’m going to go rest up for a bit, and you should too. We’ve got a big day coming up. You can stay in the quarters over there,” I point down the hall to the left. “Feel free to read anything you’d like, by the way. Good night,” I turn to walk towards my quarters. 

“Wait. I know we met before at the cantina, but I don’t think I ever caught your name back then?” he called after me, a note of question in his voice. 

It then occurred to me that while he didn’t know my name, I also didn’t really know his. We always just referred to him as the Mandalorian or Mando, but it seemed highly unlikely that was his actual name. 

“It’s Y/N. Y/N Ij,” I say, as I look over my shoulder. Mando gives a small nod. “So you know my name. What’s yours?” I ask. The Mandalorian stares back, hesitating a bit and looking down at a book he’d taken off one of the shelves. 

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it, I can just call you Mando,” I say, waving my hand quickly and regretting having asked. Maybe that was a rude question for an old school Mandalorian? 

“No, it’s fine...it’s just...I didn’t used to tell people what it was before. But...it’s Din. Din Djarin,” he said slowly, still staring at the book in his hand. I glanced down at it and noticed it was a book titled  _ The Fate of Mandalore _ . I quickly ripped my eyes away from the book and back to his helmeted face. 

“Din. Got it. Well, good night Din Djarin,” I say, nodding my final farewell of the night and turning on my heel. 

“Good night, Y/N Ij,” he calls back. 

I shut the door to my quarters and walk over to the mirror to wash my face and clean my teeth before bed. Din Djarin. It’s got a bit of a ring to it, I guess, though it seems much softer than your typical warrior name. I pull my long blonde hair up into a knot and nestle deep into my covers. My alarm is set for 5 hours from now to make sure I’m up well before we reach Hoth. Drifting into sleep, my dreams are filled with impossibly tall book shelves, my parents’ faces, and a helmet.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It felt as though I’d just laid down my head when the alarm went off. I groped around in the dimly lit quarters for the source of the shrill alarm, found it and shut it off immediately. I was once again bathed in warm and comfortable silence. For another moment, I lay there, unwilling to move just yet. Finally though, I forced myself from bed and pulled on my pants, a shirt and my jacket. 

Lacing up my boots, I thought ahead to the impending mountainous hike in frigid temperatures. All I could hope for was that we would find Ettuch quickly as to avoid having to redo the hike the next day. It would be a near death wish to stay in the mountains overnight due to the sub-zero temperatures, so if we couldn’t find him and bring him in, we’d have to do it all over again tomorrow. 

I splash some water on my face, pull my hair back into a neater ponytail and leave the captain’s quarters. Stopping briefly in the lounge to grab some caf, I make my way through the ship to the cockpit. I glance over at the bookcase on my way and notice that my copy of _The Fate of Mandalore_ still isn’t back in its place on the bookshelf. I guess he did want to read it, I think to myself.

Once in the cockpit, I let out a deep breath that I didn’t know I was holding in when I saw that the cockpit was empty. It’s not that I don’t like having Din on board, it’s just he makes me a bit nervous. I can’t read a thing he’s thinking, and that throws me. 

I look around at our coordinates and see we’re still a little over an hour and a half out from Hoth. I take another deep breath through my nostrils, kick my boots up atop the dash and lean back in my seat, sipping caf pleasantly. I start to take mental note of all the items I’ll need to gather to bring with us to assist in our icy hike that wouldn’t slow us down in a fight. Rope, pick ax, lantern, a canteen of water, some rations of food. A few minutes later, I’m still thinking of any potential objects I could add to the list, and I hear the door to the cockpit slide open. I glance over my shoulder as Din walks in. 

“Morning! There’s some caf in the lounge if you want any,” I say cheerfully. 

Din nods and replies, “Thanks. We should probably get going on putting together our hiking packs. I already started pulling one together. So far I’ve found rope, a lantern and some water, but we’ll also need-”

“A pick ax, some food and probably a compass too now that I think of it?” I finish the sentence for him nodding. “Yeah, I know. Pick ax is in the workshop, rations in the lounge and I believe my compass is actually in my room.”

“Ok, good. I’ll stay here if you want to go finish up the pack,” Din says, looking forward into the blue and white flashes of hyperspace in front of us.

“Consider it done,” I say, hopping out of my seat and walking back to pick up the rest of the items. Again, I’m a bit relieved to be able to leave the room so quickly. He’s a very intense man, and this early in the morning, I’d rather just sip my caf and quietly gather my things. A few minutes later, after fishing the compass out from under the bed and tying off the pack, I walk back into the cockpit. 

Din swivelled around and switched seats without saying a word. I smile slightly and settle back in. “It looks like we’re about 45 minutes out from Hoth,” I say after checking the navigation system again. 

Din nodded and said, “Yeah, and we’ve got a long day ahead of us, so we’d best get going right away.”

“Yup, don’t want to get stuck in the mountains of Hoth at night,” I say with a shiver just thinking about those frozen nights. 

Another 45 minutes pass in relative silence, which I keep overthinking, but I’ve come to see that Din doesn’t seem like much of a talker. It’s probably fine, I think. 

“Ok, coming out of hyperspace in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!” I say, pulling back the lever. 

The galaxy comes back into focus, and the ship is quickly closing in on a small, white planet. Shortly after that, the two of you land near the old rebel base and pull on your snow suits. It’s clear neither of you are big fans of these ungainly additions to your wardrobe, but it sure beats freezing to death. The cold of the planet already feels like it’s seeping through every crevice of the ship. 

“Ok, are you ready?” Din asks, turning towards you. 

After a deep breath I say, “Yeah I guess, here we go. Off to freeze our asses off.” I hit the button in the cargo hold to lower the ramp, and instantly, a whirl of white flutters inside the ship. A few moments later, the snowflakes have settled, and the pair of you step off the ship. 

* * *

Almost instantly, I pull my goggles down over my eyes, simply in an effort to figure out which way was up and down through the swirling flurries. The white was endless and blurred the perception of direction. After a moment to reach equilibrium again, I turn to look at Din, who is staring out into what you can now tell are mountains. 

“Based on your map, it looks like the transmission was coming from that direction,” Din says in a near yell, pointing towards the northwest mountain peaks. I nod and begin to trek towards the mountain. It’s too cold to sit around chatting, especially in the valley which has essentially become a giant wind tunnel between the mountains. 

About an hour later, we reached the base of the mountain and begin our upward climb. The mountains, similar to the valley, are desolate. Few things grow in a world with a climate this cold. I crunch along through the snow, throwing a sidelong glance every few minutes to make sure Din is still making his way up the mountain. The going is slow, and the two of you speak very little during the climb. Unlike in the cockpit, this doesn’t bother me considering how cold it is and that the winds are still whipping through the air, carrying any trace of sound quickly away. 

A few more hours pass, and it’s nearly midday. Or at least, I assume it’s midday knowing how long we climbed and when we left the Huntress. The sky around is still a blank, greyish white, making it very difficult to tell a precise time. The fact that I can’t fully tell the time is slightly unnerving. What if we climb for too long without realizing it and get stuck in the mountain overnight? 

Finally, Din motions to a small cave in the side of the mountain face. The cave fits both of you comfortably, but there wouldn’t be much more space for anything else. Fortunately, in the cave, the wail of the wind is severely diminished, and I can hear again. 

“Phew, about time,” I say, lifting the canteen of water to my lips, drinking deeply. 

“It’s not ideal weather out there,” Din rasps out through his helmet. I offer the water to Din, but he declines. After a moment of confusion, I realize that the cave is too small for him to keep his face covered while pulling his helmet off far enough to drink. I glance down at my boots and say, “oh, right yeah, sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’m ok for now anyways,” he says as he pulls the compass out of the pack. He holds it up turning it this way and that. “It looks like we’ll need to go still a little further west,” he said, still staring down at the compass to be sure. 

“Ok, sounds good,” I say. I don’t have the energy to talk much more than that. A few minutes later, still breathing deeply, the pair of you set off again, headed further west this time. After another hour, the mountain gets even steeper, and I’m glad I thought to also add walking sticks to the pack. As the two of you pull yourselves slowly up the mountain, I scan the surroundings, looking for anything that appears out of the ordinary or where snow has been touched recently, so far to no avail. 

Time drags on until finally, Din signals to stop hiking. Instantly, I halt and perk up my ears, listening for whatever sound Din heard. The noise was very faint and due to the high wind speed down the mountain, it could really be coming from anywhere to the north of our position. However, the noise was distinct. It sounded like some kind of droid. 

Din signals to continue the climb slowly and quietly. The higher we get, the clearer the sound becomes. It definitely sounds like an Imperial droid of some sort. Finally, a large cave mouth comes into view ahead. A light spills out onto the surrounding snow. 

I jerk my head first in the direction of the large cave and then in the direction of a much smaller one directly to my left and walk into it. Once Din is inside, I say, “Ok great! He’s here! Let’s go get him so we can get back to my ship.” 

Din shakes his head, “Not so fast. We need to make sure it’s the right guy before we do that. I’d also like to have a better idea of the situation before we attack. It’ll be hard to do that without being seen though,” Din says, leaning slightly out of the smaller cave you’re both currently inhabiting to see the path ahead. 

I look over my shoulder too. The cave mouth would be too wide to try to get near without being seen. As my eyes wander around the cave opening, I notice a small ledge, jutting out above the cave. Perfect. 

“What if we scaled part of the mountain and positioned ourselves on top of that small ledge? That way, we’d be able to hear who’s in there, and hopefully, that will be enough to give us enough information to determine if it’s the target or not,” I say.

Din leaned out again, helmet turned up toward the ledge. “Ok, let’s go,” he said, gathering himself up. 

Slowly and quietly, we walk towards the cave, looking for the best spot to start your ascent. Some of the rocks are within reach, and I begin climbing. Din climbs just behind. The climb is short, and soon, we’re both lying flat on our stomachs on the ledge. Careful not to knock any rocks or snow off the ledge, I crawl forward as close to the edge as possible. 

The Imperial droid language, though unintelligible, can be heard even more clearly now. Soft footsteps can be heard below, and after a few moments, it seems fairly clear there’s only one individual in the cave. I glance over at Din. Though his helmet obscures his face, I can tell he’s listening just as intently as I am. He turns his helmet towards me. 

In a low whisper, he says, “It sounds like it’s just one person with a droid, but we still can’t be sure. Do you have anything small and reflective?” 

I’m taken a bit aback, but I nod and pull the small, silver identification tag off the bag of supplies. Din slowly inches up next to me and takes the tag. Holding it carefully, he brings the tag down over the edge, angling it back up towards us. Understanding his intention now, I look at the tag and see the reflection of the side of the cave wall slipping across the surface of the silver. Suddenly, a brighter reflection of the cave below us shines up at us. 

The cave below is lit with several camp lanterns. There’s a fire pit, a makeshift cot and some transmitters. A figure in dark grey paces back and forth as a small, imperial droid beeps its alien tongue monotonously. The silver doesn’t give the greatest detail in the reflection, but from what I can tell, it seems that this is in fact the droid and captain we were looking for.

I look back at Din and nod. “That’s him,” I whisper. 

“Let’s draw him out of the cave, jump down and hide in the cave and then attack when he gets back,” Din whispers urgently. “I can shoot that rockface down there to get his attention, but we’ll need to act very quickly once he’s out. No hesitating,” he continues. I nod and pull myself up to a crouch to jump once Ettuch is out of the cave. “Ready,” I say.

BLAST! The shot rings out through the air, and a menacing crashing erupts from the split boulders as they thunder down the mountain. As if on cue, the captain runs out of the cave blaster held high, looking left and right until he sees the source of the noise. He makes his way a bit further down the path to check it out. Once Ettuch is a bit further down the path, we leap from our hiding place and rush into the cave. There aren’t many hiding spaces, so Din and I simply wedge ourselves as deeply into the walls on either side of the cave opening. This way, once Ettuch returns, we can block his exit through the cave mouth. 

A few minutes pass, and I’m still breathing quickly from nerves. I hated this waiting. I’d rather just get on with it, but it seemed unwise to attempt to chase Ettuch anywhere along these mountains. I glance over at Din, whose helmet is leaned up against the wall turned towards the cave mouth. For a moment, I can feel his eyes on me, and I will myself to take a deep, calming breath. Nerves won’t help anything. 

After another few minutes, the sound of snow crunching underfoot approaches the cave. Ettuch walks into the cave, backs to us and blaster stowed back in its holster. I look back at Din and nod, and we jump from our respective hiding places, block the door and point our blasters at him. Ettuch jumped and spun around at this. 

“What…ahh, I see. Bounty hunters,” Ettuch sneered in a greasy voice. “I must admit, I’m a bit disappointed the Republic didn’t send anyone more important to find me.”

“Drop your weapon and kick it over to us,” Din demands, not reacting to Ettuch’s comments. 

Ettuch laughs coldly. “Here I am thinking Mandalorians are supposed to be warriors, and you don’t want to fight me to the death?” 

“Drop it, Ettuch. We don’t have to bring you in alive,” I say, glaring at his smug face. Ettuch throws up his hands in mock apology, “Alright, alright, here you go.” 

Ettuch slowly reaches into his holster for his weapon. Predictably, he attempts to point it, but before he can even aim, Din shoots Ettuch’s foot. The captain lets out a cry of pain and drops to the ground. Din reaches Ettuch in a step and grabs the blaster, while I run forward and pin him down. 

“Nice try, asshole,” I say, holding him down as he squirms, while I try to reach the handcuffs from my belt loop. Ettuch leans his head back against the snow and looks up at Din. His gaze stops at a small, rectangular object hanging off Din’s belt. 

“Oh-HO! I didn’t realize I was with royalty,” Ettuch panted. My eyebrows furrow a bit. That’s a bit of an odd comment, but maybe he’s just trying to distract us. I finally reached the handcuffs on my belt. I start to cuff Captain Ettuch, when I hear very loud footfalls and a roar just outside the cave. A chill that had nothing to do with the cold went down my spine as I turned my head towards the cave mouth and saw a wampa stomping into the cave. The wampa sees us, lets out a roar of anger and charges. I leap back into the wall just in time as the wampa barrels into the room. 

Din and I reacted quick enough that we were on the edges of the room, but Ettuch, who had just been pinned down, didn’t have enough time to move. The wampa runs in, trashes all the technology in the room in his wake, grabs Ettuch by his arm and yanks. A blood curdling scream fills the cave as a spurt of hot blood hits the snowy floor as Ettuch’s arm is removed from his body. The wampa goes in for a bite on Ettuch’s torso, ripping out even more of the captain. 

I fire a blaster shot at the wampa, and the noise fills the cave like a cannon. The sound scares the wampa out of the cave, and I follow, shooting all the while. Once the wampa can’t be heard anymore, I run back into the cave. Din is there, leaning over Ettuch, whose face is chalk white. Ettuch sustained massive blood loss, and it’s clear he will not live to see another sun. 

I pull Din aside when I see this. “Hey, he may have been a traitorous dangerous asshole, but no one deserves to die like this. I’m going to ask him if he’d like me to...end his suffering,” I say. Din casts his eyes back on Ettuch and agrees. 

“Captain Ettuch,” I say as soothingly as possible, “I know you’re in pain now. There’s nothing more we can do to help you, except help this suffering end quicker. We could make it all stop a lot faster,” I say, gesturing to my blaster. Ettuch’s face is beaded with sweat, and for a moment, I’m not sure that he understood what I was asking. A minute later though, he nods, eyes tearing up. I turn to Din. “Go ahead,” he says. I take a deep breath and pick up my blaster. I look into Ettuch's pain stricken eyes, and he nods softly. I gently squeeze the trigger.

I sit back on my heels and stand up. Avoiding looking down at Ettuch, I call back thickly to Din, “Can you please get the cave in order, I’m going to see if the wampa is gone,” and swiftly walk from the cave. I know the wampa will be long gone from here for a while, but I need a moment to take a breath after that. Bounty killing is one thing, but mercy killing is another. One is easier than the other.

A few minutes later, I walked back into the cave. Din has moved Ettuch to a corner near the mouth of the cave and has placed an old rag from the pack over his face out of respect. I appreciate this small act of humanity from Din and smile softly. 

Unfortunately, I have to get my head back on straight and realized that we are in a bit of a mess. It would have been difficult enough to bring a live Ettuch and a droid down the mountain, but a dead body was another story completely. We’d need to figure out some sort of stretcher or at least a sled of sorts to bring his body down to the Huntress. I glance outside, and to my deep displeasure, I see the grey sky has turned a deeper shade. Night would fall very soon.

“It’s unlikely we’ll make it back to the ship before dark now, especially carrying him,” I say. Din nodded. “I think our best bet at this point is to stay here and move him in the morning,” he said. 

* * *

We set up a camp of sorts in the cave. I go about starting a fire in the fire pit. The darkness outside the cave has already deepened, and it’s only getting colder. Even under my thermal snowsuit, I can still feel the chill, setting deep into my bones. I shiver and poke at the small flames that have formed in the pit. Half an hour later, the fire is happily crackling, and though the warmth from it only provides a bit of heat, it’s better than nothing. I check the temperature gauge on my watch. It’s already way below freezing and almost to a danger point. 

Din and I eat a portion of our rations in silence. Though I dislike the silence, the only thing I can think of to discuss is how dire the situation is, and that’s not a conversation I want to have just yet. I pulled the blanket I had fished out of the pack tighter around my shoulders, but it didn’t help much. The temperature was already in the negatives, and the night was still young. 

“Din,” I say breaking the silence, “This is bad. There’s no way we’ll be able to get the heat elements working again, and I’m not sure blankets are going to be enough to keep us warm.” 

Din stared into the fire, still silent. After a moment, he responded, “You might be right. The only thing I can think of is to try to share body heat and hope we can make it to morning.” My eyebrows raise a bit at this, but he’s not wrong. Without the heating technology in the cave that the wampa destroyed, the only other option was to sleep under the same blanket. 

“I think you might be right,” I say, glancing out into the darkness outside of the cave. The snow was heavier now and showed no signs of letting up. “Well, I suppose cuddling it is,” I say in a joking voice. Din grunted in what sounded like a somewhat displeased tone. We move to the back wall of the cave as far away from the wind as possible. I lay my blanket down on top of the hard packed snowy ground, and we crawl onto it as Din throws his slightly larger blanket over the two of us. I try to tuck the corners of the top blanket underneath me, attempting to keep in as much heat as possible. I shimmy a little bit in place, trying to warm myself a bit. 

Din draws a little closer to me. His armor is a bit cold, but I can feel it slowly warming up with our combined heat. Though it’s hardly the warmest bed I’ve ever slept in, it’s a bit warmer than sitting by myself. I shiver again, and at this, Din pulls me even closer with his arm. It's hardly comfortable, but minimal extra heat does help. As we settle in, I feel my mind start to shift to more serious things.

“You know, it’s going to be ok, right? You’re gonna be ok,” I whisper through the dim. 

“There’s a good chance we both die here overnight actually,” Din said flatly. I stare over into the fire, lost in thought. 

“No, that’s not what I mean. Your losses. They’ll never be less painful, but you will learn to live with them. They never go away, and there will always be a deep scar, but you’ll eventually be able to move forward,” I say, not entirely sure why I felt like I needed to say this. 

Din was silent. 

“I saw you kept reading that book last night,” I continue softly, “I know what happened to your people. I’m very sorry.”

More silence. 

“Anyways, that’s all. I just wanted you to know that you’re not alone. Good night,” I say, pulling the side of the blanket in closer and closing my heavy lids. 

I’m half asleep when I feel arms tighten around me and a soft, gravely voice say, “Good night.”


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A whistle of snow wakes me hours later. It takes me a moment to realize where I am and what happened. Ettuch. The wampa. Din. I realize that Din is still next to me, beskar and all. By now, his armour is closer to body temperature, and it’s a bit more comfortable to lay next to him. It’s a moment later that I realize not only am I laying next to him, but it seems I’ve rolled over in my sleep and my head is now on his breastplate. This realization fully wakes me up with a jolt, and I jump back. Din, startled by my movement, moved for his blaster. 

“Sorry, forgot where I was for a minute,” I croaked, my voice dehydrated and not yet used to talking to people for the day. Din grunts and pulls himself to his feet. “We should get going soon,” he says, looking out the cave mouth.

I look around to see if there’s anything salvageable from the cave that the wampa didn’t destroy, but nothing looks fixable enough for me to warrant carrying it down the mountain. We set Ettuch’s body on a makeshift stretcher and begin the trek down the mountain. The going is easier than the climb up, albeit somewhat more ungainly due to Ettuch. 

We make it back to the ship a few hours later, unload all the supplies and put Ettuch’s body in a huge chest in the cargo hold. Thanks to the snow, the body didn’t smell yet. However, as time passed and it thawed in the hold, it would begin to. Once everything was in, I closed the ramp, and the warmth from the ship set in. I pull off the snowsuit, and I’m gratefully met with warm air. 

“We should get going. It’ll take us some time to get back to Nevarro,” Din says, tossing aside his snowsuit. I walk up towards the front and begin the take off sequences. Minutes later, we’re zooming off the icy planet and back towards Nevarro. Once things are all set, I turn to Din and say, “Alright, I’m going to freshen up a bit. See you in a little.” 

The hot water from the shower feels amazing, though it stung a little at first. Breathing in the steamy air deeply, I think about what’s next for the day. Most of the day will be spent flying back to Nevarro, so there will be some time to read. We’ll land late into Nevarro, but it’s still very likely that our client will be around to collect the bounty. After a few minutes, I turn off the shower and dry off, pulling clean clothes on. I feel like a new woman, I think, smiling to myself in the mirror. Hair still a bit damp, I walk back through the ship, pick up some caf in the lounge and head back to the cockpit. Din is there, staring straight ahead into hyperspace. 

“Hey, shower’s open if you want it,” I say, jerking my head behind me. Din nodded and headed back. Looking at all the dials, everything seems to be in order on the ship, so after I confirm the autopilot is set to Nevarro, I walk back into the empty lounge to read. I grab the book on ship modifications off the shelf and dive back into the chapter about how to make your hyperdrive faster. It seems like a bad idea to try to make any changes while actively in hyper drive, so I make a mental note to make these changes once on Nevarro.

A little while later, Din walks in. He pulls the copy of  _ The Fate of Mandalore _ off the shelf and asks, “Do you mind if I borrow this again? I didn’t quite finish it the other night.” I nod and look back to my book. 

Din sits at the table and flips the book open. I can’t help but glance over to see what part he’s reading. It looks like he’s reading a section about Mandalore’s more recent history during the time of the Old Republic. Din catches me staring, and I look hastily back to my ship mod book. Din lets out a sigh. 

“Go on, ask what you want to ask,” he says in a low tone. I look back up at him and blink. I didn’t think he’d want to talk to me about anything. 

“Well...I guess I’m just curious why you’re reading that chapter of the book? The section you’re reading is in the near past, and I can’t totally tell, but it does seem like you were probably alive for that part of Mandalore’s history?” you ask slowly. 

Din nods. “I was. But I grew up separate from many others with the Tribe. Only recently did I find out there were other Mandalorians out there who lived differently from me.”

“Differently in that they don’t follow the ancient ways?” I ask, closing my book and putting my full attention on Din. 

“Yes. I didn’t know until I came across others recently. I want to learn about how they have lived after Mandalore fell,” he said. 

“Got it. Well, that’s a good book for that information then,” I say, “I’ve only met a few Mandalorians personally, but I mostly knew them back on Chandrila.”

“You knew Mandalorians?” Din asked quickly.

“Only maybe 3 or 4. They escaped off the planet when the crime syndicates took over, and then they settled on Chandrila. They were there before I was even born actually.”

“Did they live in the way of the Tribe?” Din asked, setting aside the book.

“You mean with the whole old school helmet on forever thing? No, no, they don’t. I remember one of them having some beskar, but he didn’t wear it all the time. In fact, he rarely ever wore it, now that I think about it,” I say, reflecting. Din silently stared back at the book. I sensed sadness in him from my comment. Part of me wanted to ask him about it, but I didn’t want to push him too far. Instead, I reopened my book. 

“We’ll be back in a few hours,” I say, not looking up. “I’m planning on trying to find our client and get our bounty pretty much immediately. Is that ok?” I ask glancing up. “Yes,” Din responded in a gravelly tone. I nodded and went back to my paragraph.

Hours later and barely any other words spoken, we approached Nevarro. I landed  _ Huntress _ smoothly back into my favorite spot on the ship bay, and we set off to find the client. 

“Who’s our client?” Din asked as we made our way through the dimly lit and semi crowded streets. This time of night, it was mostly just people leaving the cantinas roaming around, but my guard was still up. Even though Nevarro had gotten a lot safer lately, it still was no picnic. 

“Someone who works for the marshall,” I say looking to my right down an alley. 

“I know someone who works for them too,” Din says. 

“Alright, you better drop it with this whole dark and mysterious vibe. I might just fall in love with you. How do you know someone who works for the marshalls?” I ask, once again surprised by Din. 

“Let’s just say I’ve worked with the marshall,” Din says, walking up to the door of the cantina. 

“Wait, you know THE marshall??” I say as the door to the cantina opens to reveal our client, a scruffy low level assistant to the marshalls and the marshall herself, sitting across the cantina in a booth. They look up, and the marshall’s eyes widen with recognition. A sly smile flits across her face.

“Hey Mando, been a few months. Good to see you,” Cara Dune says with a nod.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

We walk further into the cantina. “Wait, so how do you know the marshall?” I say quickly under my breath as we make our way to their table.

“Later,” Din says, not taking his gaze off Cara and our scruffy client.

“Good to see you, Cara,” Din said once we reached the table. “May we?” Din asked gesturing to the other seats around the table. Cara nodded for us to sit. 

“So I hear you’ve been on a mission for ole Mak Lekar here?” Cara asked nodding her head at our client, Mak. 

“Technically, it was Y/N’s bounty. She brought me on board with it,” Din replied. Cara raised her eyebrows. 

“Really? Wow. Well, it’s good to see you playing nicely with others,” she said, leaning back and taking a swig from her bottle. 

“What’s your deal?” she asked, wiping her mouth with her sleeve as she looked at me. 

“Not much to tell. Just a bounty hunter from Chandrila,” I say. 

“Chandrila? Fancy. What brought you here?” she asked curiously.

“You might say I became disenchanted with the planet and the politics after the attack on Hanna City on Liberation Day,” I say glancing down at the table to avoid eye contact. I didn’t want to continue the conversation and prayed we’d move on.

“Understood,” Cara said, who clearly was not going to press the issue. 

Mak cleared his throat. “So I take it your mission was a success?” Mak inquired. 

“Yes, we have Ettuch. Unfortunately, he’s dead. A wampa ripped him limb from limb, and we, uh, put him out of his misery,” I said. “He’s currently in my cargo hold.”

“That’s too bad. I was hoping to question him, but I did say dead or alive. Here’s your credits,” Mak said, pushing a clinking bag of credits over the table. I took it off the table and quickly divided the credits in half, shoving my portion deep into my jacket pocket and handed Din his half in the bag. 

“I’ll have my men remove the body. You said he’s in the cargo hold?” Mak continued. 

“Yes, in the cargo hold in a light grey chest. Feel free to keep the chest too,” I reply. Mak nods and excuses himself from the table to coordinate Ettuch’s extraction from my ship. The table was quiet for a moment. A waiter came by and took our drink orders as Cara had finished her drink. 

“So, how are you holding up, Mando?” Cara said, finally breaking the silence. “I know the kid was important to you,”

“I miss him, but I’m fine. Grogu’s with his people. It’s what’s best for him. I’ll see him again some day,” Din said candidly. The waiter came back by with our drinks and a straw for Din. I took a sip of my drink and asked, “Who were his people, if you don’t mind me asking?” 

Cara glanced at Din quickly, searching for the answer to an unasked question. Din gave a small nod. 

“Jedi,” Cara said, looking piercingly back at me. I gasped. 

“You mean he was a youngling?” I said, eyes darting over to Din. 

“If that’s what you call a young Jedi, then yes. I suppose so,” he replied with a shrug. 

“Wow...that’s amazing. I knew Luke Skywalker was trying to find Force sensitive children to train, but I didn’t know he actually found any. Other than Ben, of course, but he hasn’t started training yet” I finished. From the shocked look on Cara’s face, I immediately regretted opening this can of worms. 

“What do you mean? How do you know that?” Cara asked sharply. It seemed the time had come to fully explain my past. 

“Well, Din already knows this, but my name is Y/N Ij,” I started and Cara gave me a quizzical look. 

“Ij? As in Hostis Ij?” Cara asked. I nodded.

“Yes. I’m his daughter. Or...was...I suppose,” I said, looking down and taking a drink. 

“Well, that makes sense then. I’m sorry for your loss,” Cara said, a bit softly. I give a small smile of thanks. 

“I still don’t get it,” Din said flatly, looking between Cara and me. “Who’s Hostis Ij?”

I sighed. It was nice that Cara had understood this quickly, but obviously, I couldn’t count on everyone to know all about the inner workings of the New Republic. 

“My father was an advisor to Chancellor Mon Mothma. He and my mother were murdered on Liberation Day during the attempted assasination of the Chancellor. That’s why I left,” I said taking a deep breath before continuing.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Din said softly. I gave him a small smile and continued.

“I grew up surrounded by senators, advisors, generals, you name it. My family was also close with the Solos,” and then Din cut me off. 

“Wait, I’ve heard of Solo. He’s a smuggler, right?” he asked.

I laughed. “Well, he was, yes. He also helped defeat the Empire, married Leia Organa and they now have a son, Ben. He’s pretty young still, but he’s very strong with the Force already,” I continued. 

“Leia’s brother is Luke Skywalker, a famous Jedi, and I know he’s looking for Force sensitive children because Leia mentioned it to me. I was watching Ben one day when Leia had to leave for a meeting with a Senator, and he nearly destroyed the inside of their house by sending a chair flying through the air, wreaking havoc,” I chuckled in recollection. 

“I was so worried that Leia would be mad when she came back and found the house a mess, but she laughed and said it happened more often than she cared to share. That’s when she told me all about the Jedi and what Luke was planning on doing,” I finished. I looked at Din, waiting for his reply. 

“That makes sense. Are there any other children besides Ben?” Din asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t think he’s found any yet outside of Grogu, but he’ll keep looking,” I said. Din nodded and took a sip from his straw. 

It was almost inspiring to hear that there was at least one other youngling out there. I’d read all about the fall of the Jedi with Order 66, and I’d always hoped they’d come back. From everything I’d read and heard about them from Leia and others, it seemed like the world could use the Jedi’s power and support.

“Well, it’s good to hear the kid’ll be in good hands,” Cara said. I smiled. 

“Definitely. For the time being though, I’m still without a ship, and I don’t think these credits,” Din lifted up the small sack of money and clinked them together, “will buy me a new ship. Do you know of any other bounties out there?” he asked, looking over at Cara. 

Cara sighed. “We try to avoid using bounty hunters when possible, and to my knowledge, there aren’t any other jobs right now from us. You could try Valaan Sarcott over there. She sometimes knows of deals, and she’s fair,” Cara said. “I really shouldn’t be telling you that though, so just don’t say where you heard it from, ok?” she asked, nodding her head in the direction of Sarcott who sat alone in the far corner of the bar. 

“Understood. Thank you for your help,” Din said. Cara smiled, gave a wave of good bye and walked away from the table. 

“So, if Sarcott has something, do you want to split it again? I can’t hunt on a job without a ship,” Din said turning his helmet back to me. 

“Sure, fine with me,” I say, surprised but glad we’ll still be partnering on this. “Let’s go talk to Sarcott, why don’t we?” I say. We finish the last of our drinks and walk across the dim cantina towards the far corner of the bar.

* * *

Valaan Sarcott looks up. Sarcott is a Zabrak, and though Cara said she was fair, I still was a bit hesitant about trusting her. The other Zabrak’s I’d met tended to be a bit volatile. 

“Can I help you?” she asked in a bored tone. 

“We heard you might have a job for a pair of bounty hunters,” Din said. 

Valaan chuckled. “Who told you that?” 

“Does it matter?” I ask. Valaan turns to look at me. Her yellow eyes narrow. 

“As a matter of fact, it does, pip squeak. Who told you?” Valaan hissed. 

“Let’s just say you should be grateful that the New Republic seems to value you enough to keep you around,” Din said. Valaan pursed her lips but nodded. 

“Fine, sit,” she said tersely. Din slid into the booth first and I followed. This table was a bit smaller than our table with Cara, so Din and I sat fairly close together. I felt a flush creep up my neck as his knee touched mine under the table. Keep it together, Ij, I think angrily. 

“I have a job that will pay handsomely. I’m talking several hundred thousand credits. A senator’s son was kidnapped and is being held for ransom currently. The way I hear it, the kid might also have some personal information about his dad that the Senator doesn’t want getting out. For this reason, the Senator would like the captors dead and his son alive,” Valaan said.

“If the Senator wants his son back and for his information to not get out, why wouldn’t he just pay the ransom?” I asked, a bit confused by the situation. 

“He doesn’t want to show that he’s willing to bend to kidnappers. The kidnapping tactic isn’t new, and if he pays the ransom this time, that says to the whole galaxy that he’s willing to pay it. That could mean more kidnapping attempts and paying way more that just paying off a hefty fee to some bounty hunters,” Valaan answered. I nodded. That certainly made sense. 

“Do you know where the son and the kidnappers were last seen?” Din asked. 

“Felucia, from what it sounds like, but I can’t promise they’re still there. Here’s a hologram of what the son looks like,” Valaan reached into her bag and tossed a small black puck onto the table. “There’s no tracking device on the kid, but that should at least help so you don’t kill the wrong person,” she said. Din picked it up off the table and nodded. 

“Thanks. We’ll see you soon,” he said and looked at you, waiting for you to exit the booth so he could follow. You climb out of the booth, and the pair of you walk back out of the cantina. 

* * *

A few minutes later, you’re back on the  _ Huntress _ , prepping the ship for take off. You’d never been to Felucia, but you’d read about all the plant life there. Even though the point of bounty hunting wasn’t to see the whole galaxy, it did feel like an added bonus.

After running your checks, you flip the engine on, and the  _ Huntress _ roars off of Nevarro. A few minutes later once you’ve jumped to hyperspace, Din turns to look at you. 

“I know what it’s like to lose your parents too, you know?” he said empathetically. “My parents were killed when I was very young, which is why I ended up with the Mandalorians.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. It’s not something I’d wish on anyone,” you say, feeling your throat tighten a bit. This is why you didn’t talk about your parents typically. 

“I do have a brother who still lives back on Chandrila. He didn’t want to leave because his wife is still there,” I continue, eyes staring into hyperspace but seeing the lush hills of Chandrila.

“Why did you leave then? If you still had family there, why go?” Din asked curiously. I sighed. 

“Well, the Chancellor wanted me to take my father’s place. I didn’t happen to agree with my father’s politics, nor did I want to work for the Chancellor. I know she means well, but I don’t always think she makes the right choices,” I say. “I just felt like if I didn’t leave, then I’d end up getting sucked in. I just didn’t, well no, COULDN’T follow in my father’s footsteps after what happened. My brother and his wife are fine. As much as they love me, they don’t need me around, and they understood why I couldn’t stay. At least not for a while.”

Din nodded. “Understood,” he said simply. A few moments pass until he spoke again.

“Back on Hoth you told me I’m not alone. Just wanted you to know, the same is true for you,” he said, not looking over at me. My heart beat a bit faster, and I took a quick breath. 

“Thanks, I appreciate that,” I said.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

An hour and a half later, the  _ Huntress _ dropped out of hyperspace and landed on Felucia. After gathering a small pack of supplies each and ensuring I had a few blasters on me, the pair of us walked out into the jungle. The air was humid and smelled sweetly of tropical flowers with an undercurrent of decaying plant. As we had approached our landing in the clearing, Din pointed out a settlement just a few clicks off, and the two of us began the trek towards the village. 

Making our way through the dense forest was slow work. Chopping through the vines was difficult especially since I was only a little over 5 feet tall. Finally, after 10 or so minutes, Din spoke up. 

“Let me go first. It’ll be faster,” he said. I glared over my shoulder. 

“I can handle it,” I say back indignantly. 

“Yeah sure you can, but it’ll take forever. Let someone who doesn’t have the stature of an Ewok take the lead,” he said flatly. 

“Ex-CUSE me?? I’m much taller than an Ewok! I can…” but I broke off hearing a low chuckle coming from under Din’s helmet. “You’re messing with me,” I say.

“It was pretty funny. Doesn’t take a lot to mess with you, apparently,” Din replied playfully. I huffed a bit, which only made him chuckle more.

“Fine, go ahead, tin can. You can chop down all these vines,” I chide. Din slid ahead of me and started chopping our way through the forest. I had to admit to myself that he was a bit better at it than I was, but I’d never say that out loud. 

30 minutes later, we approached the village. The Felucians were mainly farmers, and the village was peaceful and quaint, the sounds of laughing children ringing through the air. As we approached, I saw some of the Felucians visibly stiffen, and some mothers brought their children inside. Moments later, an older Felucian approached us. 

“Hello, welcome to our village. What brings you here today?” he asked. His tone was cordial enough but still edged with distrust. 

“We’re searching for this man,” Din said, turning the hologram on to show the face of the son of the Senator. He had a chiseled, attractive face with dark, chocolate hair. His name, Will Silzere blazed above his image. “Have you seen him around? He’s been kidnapped,” Din asked.

The elder Felucian sighed. “Yes, he came through here with 2 Rodians a few moons ago. They went towards the direction of those mountains,” he said, pointing to the west. 

“Thank you. We appreciate your help,” I said. “Is there anything we can give you in return for your help?” I ask.

The Felucian nodded quickly. “Yes, you can get them off of our planet. We don’t need any trouble here.”

“That we can do. We’ll be on our way now,” Din said, and we walked away in the direction of the westward mountains. Din led the way again through the jungle, but the foliage had thinned out a bit here, making it easier to hike through. The pathway widened, and I walked up next to him.

“So what do you think Will has against his father?” I asked conversationally. 

“Don’t know. Don’t care,” Din said pushing aside a flowery vine. 

“Awww, c’mon! I’m sure you’ve got a guess! Wanna make it interesting?” I said playfully.

“What do you have in mind?” he asked in a bored tone, not looking over at me. 

“If you guess correctly, then you can take your pick of any of my books to keep. If I guess correctly, then you’re have to help me make some mods on my hyperdrive,” I say. 

“That’s pretty low stakes,” Din said, looking over at me.

“Eh, I know. But you’re saving up for a ship, so I don’t want to cut into your savings when I beat you,” I say back impishly. Din scoffed. 

“Alright, fine, you’ve got a deal. What’s your guess?” he said. 

I think for a moment. What secrets could a Senator have that he would be willing to pay hundreds of thousands of credits to keep it quiet?

“My guess is he’s actually secretly working for the Empire,” I say after a moment of thought. 

Din looked over at me. “Really? That would be a pretty big deal, you sure you want that to be your guess?” 

“100%!” You say sunnily. 

“Alright then,” Din said doubtfully. “My guess is owes a crime syndicate money and doesn’t want that getting out,” he guessed. I nod. 

“Decent enough guess too,” I say fairly. “May the best win!”

We trek through the forest for another few hours. The terrain is starting to incline as we get closer and closer to the mountains, and night is falling quickly. “I think we should stop soon and make camp for the night. Don’t want to come across a jungle rancor in the dark,” Din says. I agree, and we stop in a small clearing that’s surrounded by trees. 

I get a fire going and move a few logs to act as benches around the fire. Din takes a quick sweep of the perimeter to make sure there’s no unfriendly animals around. A few minutes later, we’re all set and dig into some of our portions. Din walked a several meters away into the jungle to remove his helmet and eat. 

He walked back a few minutes later. “So, do you have any special skills that might be helpful when hunting?” Din asks. I glance over at him and raise my eyebrow, surprised that he’s initiating conversation. 

“Uh yeah, kind of, I suppose. I used to be a bit of an acrobat growing up on Chandrila. My mom had me take lessons for fun,” I say smiling in recollection as I take another bite of my portion. 

“Really? What can you do?” Din asked. 

I finish chewing, brush the crumbs off my hands and stand up. “I’ll just show you,” I said, putting the wrappings of my portion to the side. I look over my shoulder at a tree with a fallen log below it. I walk over to the tree and quickly pull myself up onto one of the upper branches. 

“Alright, I’m going to do a flip off this tree, land on the log, back handspring and then do a flip off the log to finish,” I call down. Din stood up and turned towards the tree, arms crossed, watching. I take a deep breath and jump. I tuck my head in, flip forward and narrowly land on the log. I bobble for a minute and then back handspring and back flip off the log, moss softening my landing.

“What good is that?” Din said, unimpressed. 

“Well, how about we go hand to hand on that log and I’ll show you? Unless you’re too scared,” I add wryly. 

“Look, kid, I don’t want to hurt you,” Din starts, and I cut him off. “Oh don’t worry old man. I would worry more about yourself,” I say, snickering. 

Din stares blankly back and me and then hops up on the log. I hop up too and take the first swing. My fist collides with the side of his helmet. I feel tears well up behind my eyes as the pain radiates through my hand. Damn, that Beskar really is strong, I think as Din takes a swing at me. I handspring backwards away, and Din edges up the log towards me. I act as though I’m going for another strike to the face, and Din ducks. I take advantage of this, flip over top of him and land behind him. Before he has a chance to react, I swipe his legs, and he falls with a thud into the soft earth next to the log. Din rolls over onto one elbow and looks up at me. 

“Good job, but I was going easy on you,” he said. I laugh and throw my head back. “No way, old man…” but before I have a chance to react, Din grabs my legs and pulls me off the log too. I topple unceremoniously off the log and on top of Din. 

“What was that for?” I say indignantly. 

“Well, you let your guard down. Can’t do that, not ever,” he said smugly. 

“Oh yeah? Maybe you should take your own advice,” I say slyly, and I quickly twist myself so that my knee is pinning his body down and my arms hold his shoulders. 

“It’s like you’re not even trying,” Din said, grabbing my waist and flipping himself on top of me, one arm holding my hip down, one arm pushed against my neck. He had easily 60 pounds on me, not including the weight of his armor, so I’m good and pinned down. With no feasible way of getting him off me at this point without actually harming him, I decide to go for a coy comment to throw him off. 

“Well, it’s been a minute since a man’s put me in this position. Buy me dinner first, Mando,” I say, winking and trace my hand up the outside of his thigh next to his thigh armor. 

“Alright, enough,” he says, letting me go and pushing himself to his feet. Din walked back toward the fire, not looking back at me. I chuckle to myself. 

“Well, anyways, I can use my acrobatic skills in hand to hand combat if I need, or I can use it to climb things or get away,” I say settling back into my spot by the fire. Mando stared into the fire not looking at me. “Yeah, maybe that will come in handy,” he says and poked the fire with a stick. I smile wryly. 

Even at night, the jungle was still pretty humid, and our little practice scuffle only raised my body temperature. I peeled my jacket, which I regretted bringing, off and pulled at my shirt, which was slicked against my body with sweat like a second skin. Flapping my shirt definitely was helping pull some cool air in. I breathed out heavily and looked up from the fire to see Din staring at me. 

“And what are you looking at?” I say smirking. 

“Well honestly, I wish you weren’t here right now so I could take off my beskar too. It’s pretty humid,” he said frankly. I raised an eyebrow. I looked over my shoulder and into the dark, strange woods. 

“I could always just go bunk a bit further into the forest if you’d like?” I ask, thinking which direction would be best to find a quiet hide out. Din shook his head.

“It’s too-” he started. “Too what? Dangerous? Din, I can just go a little ways further up. I’ll be fine,” I say hopping to my feet and grabbing my jacket and pack. I turn to leave and feel the pack get yanked from my grasp. 

“Absolutely not,” Din said seriously. “I’m not going to have you wander off into a dark, unknown forest in the middle of the night alone just so I can cool off a bit faster.” 

I wanted to argue, but I knew it would be fruitless. “Fine,” I say snatching the pack back. 

“It’s late. We’ll need to get an early start tomorrow. I’ll take the first watch and wake you later to switch, ok?” Din asked. I sigh and nod. 

I didn’t particularly like being told what to do so many times in a row, but I had to admit I was tired. I pulled my blanket out of my pack and then laid both my pack and my blanket down in front of one of the logs by the fire. I fluffed up my pack like a pillow and then laid down, back against the log. Din had sat down leaning against the log across from me, helmet slowly scanning the trees around us. 

“Night!” I call. Din grunted in response. I smile and swiftly drift off to sleep. 

* * *

A few hours later, a bird called out and woke me. My eyes fluttered open in surprise and the dimly lit camp came into view. I looked across the fire, which had nearly burned out at this point, and saw Din staring back at me. I smiled lightly, and he started. 

“You’re awake!” he said with surprise.

“Yeah, that bird woke me up,” I respond with a yawn and sat up. 

“It’s still technically my watch,” Din said looking up at the sky, which hadn’t gotten any lighter since I’d gone to sleep. 

“No worries, I’m up now. Go ahead and sleep a bit,” I say waving a hand. Din nodded and leaned down to lay on the ground. “Night,” he said. It was odd looking at him laying there. I couldn’t tell if he was really asleep or had his eyes wide open. Soon though, I heard the gentle rise and fall of breath, confirming Din was asleep. 

I glanced back into the woods. Nothing in sight moved, but I could hear movement a bit further away. Once or twice throughout the night, I thought I heard something get close, but nothing ever ended up coming into sight. Hours later, the sky faded from inky black into a light grey, with a glimmer of sun on the horizon. 

“Din,” I called over softly. He didn’t move. I take a deep breath and pull myself up. My knees popped from being scrunched up for a few hours. I stretched and took another deep breath of morning air before walking over to him. I sat down on the log, leaned over and shook his arm lightly. 

“Hey, rise and shine, sleepy tin can,” I say brightly. Din starts and his hand goes immediately to his holster. He realizes quickly where he is, relaxes a bit and sits up. 

“Mornin’,” he grunts in an extra gravelly morning voice.

“I’m about ready whenever you are. I’m just going to scarf down a bit of my portion, and then I’m ready,” I say. Din pulls himself to his feet and nods. “Ok. I’m going to go eat something really quickly, and then I’ll be back. We can leave then,” he said, reaching down to grab a portion of food from his pack. 

I gnawed a bit on my portion. Bready and tasteless as it was, it got the job done, and soon, I was ready as I ever would be for hunting down Will. I throw my jacket into my pack and tighten the laces on my boots. I glance up the trail. It only gets steeper as we reach the base of the mountain. Sigh. It’ll be another long day, but hopefully, it’ll have a successful end. At that moment, Din walked back into the clearing. “Ready to go?” I ask and sling my pack over my shoulder. He nods, and we start the climb up the mountain. 

After only another hour and a half of hiking, we nearly reach the summit and can see the kidnappers camp a few clicks ahead of us. They were settled on a ridge backing up to what looked like a cliff. I could see the two Rodians as little blue-ish shapes sitting on a log by a fire. We were still too far away to see much more, so we climbed higher at a slower, quieter pace. Finally, we reached the edge of the camp. 

“I’ll go in first,” Din whispers, “We can sneak along the back treeline and into the tent. That must be where Will is.” 

“Ok,” I nod, “I’ll follow you.” We made our way along the treeline to the back of the tent. Din stepped out carefully. I looked around the tent. The Rodians still seemed to be distracted with their own conversations. I was about to take a step out of the treeline myself when I saw it a moment too late. One of the Rodians had gotten up and walked towards the treeline, likely to make the forest his own personal privy. Din was nearly to the back flap of the tent, but it was no use. The Rodian saw Din and almost as if he had been waiting for us, pulled out his blaster and stunned Din whose back was turned away from the Rodian. It happened so quickly that I almost forgot to duck, but fortunately, my instincts kicked back in right at the exact right time. My body had just hit the ground when the Rodian turned back to look into the forest.

I peered through the tall grass at the edge of the clearing. The other Rodian had come around, and with their combined effort, they dragged Din into the tent too. Cowards, I thought. Only a coward would stun a man with his back turned. Then, a pretend version of Din’s voice came into my mind, “Not cowards, just taking advantage of a momentary weakness of their enemy.” I sighed. Fake Din was right. He had momentarily let his guard down, and that was just enough for the Rodian to get the drop on him. I guess it really can happen to the best, I think. 

What to do now, then? A diversion? No, there’s only one of me, and I’d really need two people for that. I could try Din’s move again, but that seemed just as likely to fail as his attempt. It was too risky. Maybe, I could use a ruse? I could walk back down the mountain a bit, then walk up it and act like I was some kind of traveller perhaps? It seemed like a stretch, but if there’s one thing I trusted myself with, it was my ability to talk myself out or in to anything. I nod to myself and look down at my clothes. I removed my holster and put it in my pack, and then I take my blaster and shove it into my boot. I knew it wasn’t a great idea, but the safety was on at least. I took out the hologram puck and my extra blaster from my pack. If they decided to search me, I couldn’t seem like a bounty hunter. I was just a regular old traveller. A few minutes later, I climb back up the clearing from the front. The Rodians immediately jump to their feet and aim their blasters.

“Oh my goodness! Please don’t shoot!” I shriek in a far more feminine voice than I’m used to hearing from my lips. The Rodians look me up and down and put the blasters away. 

“What are you doing here?” the shorter of the two Rodians asked me with an accent. 

“Well,” I huff, acting like I’m pulling myself together, “Well, I’m just travelling up the mountain. I had enough of the Core Planets and thought maybe it was time for a change. Someone on Chandrila said Felucia was beautiful this time of year, so I decided to come here and look at all the flowers.” The Rodians looked at each other and looked me up and down. 

“What’s in your pack?” The second Rodian asked. I swallowed. Thank goodness I emptied it out a bit. 

“Here, take a look if you’d like. You...you can have anything you want! Just please, don’t hurt me,” I said in as sheepish a voice as I could muster, tossing the pack across to them. 

The short Rodian picked up the pack and rifled through it. He shook his head at the other Rodian and threw it back. 

“Ok, fine. We’re sorry for the aggressive nature of our communications so far, beautiful traveller. We just happen to be in custody of some very dangerous criminals, and we were concerned you might be here for them,” the taller Rodian said. 

“Oh, well don’t worry. I really am just here for the flora!” I say smiling and picking up my bag. 

“Your friends on Chandrila were correct. This is a good time of year to see Felucia,” the short Rodian said. “Come, join us as our guest for a bit. We’d love to hear of your stories from the Core Planets!” I throw on my most dazzling smile. 

“Thank you so much! I appreciate that greatly. I’d be so honored to join you as your guest for a bit. If you don’t mind though, this commotion really has me needing the privy. Do you mind if I run back into the forest for a moment?” I ask with a bat of my eyelashes. 

“Of course, my lady,” the tall Rodian replied. I smile and then walk back towards the back clearing. Looking over my shoulder, I can see the two Rodians whispering and pulling through their bags clearly looking for some kind of libation to offer upon my return. I smirk and check one more time before sliding through the back tent flaps. 

After a moment, my eyes adjust, and I see both Will and Din thrown down on the floor of the tent. I shake Din hard, and he comes to. I put a finger to my lips indicating him to not say anything as I deftly untie his bonds. I point to Din and then to Will indicating for him to untie Will as well. 

“When I say, ‘What a time to be on Felucia’, come out the front of the tent, blasters blazing. I’ll be sure to hit the deck,” I say so quietly under my breath I hope Din can hear. He nods, and I run back out the back of the tent and around to the front.

“Much better. Well gentlemen, thank you again for welcoming me into your camp. It’s been a ways since I’ve seen anyone up here!” I say sunnily. 

“You’re most welcome. Here, take this. It’s from Rodia. Very rare, very potent,” the tall Rodian says with a wink. I giggle in the most girlish way possible.

“Thank you!” I say, accepting the cup. “Shall we toast?” I ask. 

“Let’s toast to the gods who brought such a lovely traveller to us on this day,” the shorter Rodian says. 

I scoff playfully. “Oh stop! I am the one who ought to be thanking the gods for such dashing company!” 

The three of us cheers, and I pretend to take a sip. I don’t trust these Rodians further than I can throw them, and I wouldn’t put it past them for one of them to try to drug me. 

“You know,” I say, with a brilliant idea coming into mind, “I must repay you somehow for your hospitality. Back on Chandrila, I was an acrobat.” The Rodians exclaim with interest. “Yes, yes, I was an acrobat all right. I knew someday that would come in handy!” I say the last sentence a little more loudly, hoping Din can hear. I’ll show him how valuable these tricks can be. 

“Why don’t I put on a little show for you?” I ask with a sickeningly sweet smile. 

“Yes, yes please! Yes please!” the tall Rodian replies as the shorter one nods vigorously. I smile again and pull myself up. I walk out in front of the two men and begin. I do a few simple flips at first, but increase the difficulty as I go. Handsprings, tucks, layouts, fulls. The more difficult the moves become, the louder the applause of the two Rodians. Feeling as though I have them thoroughly distracted, I decide to close out my program with one last handspring and a curtsey. The two applaud, and I call out loudly, “What a time to be on Felucia!”

Immediately, Din bursts from the tent, blaster aimed. I hit the ground at once and hear two quick blasts. I look up and see the Rodians thump onto the ground, dead. 

“See? I told you my acrobatics would come in handy!” I say triumphantly. Din sighs exasperatedly.


End file.
